


Love in the time of the Internet

by skullkidd



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/M, I wrote this 5 years ago, M/M, enjoy, rich kid crying, sad but also happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 21:31:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14029161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skullkidd/pseuds/skullkidd
Summary: Arthur is famous online. He meets a boy, starts a war, and ends up pretty confused. Lots of hot chocolate, jumpers, photography, and Arthur being pretty dumb. You'll see what I mean. Tumblr AU.





	Love in the time of the Internet

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story five years ago, removed it, and now it's back. Enjoy.

It was an odd day, the day Arthur Pendragon signed up for Tumblr. His stepsister, Morgana- who, of course goes to the same university as him- had joined him in his dorm, which came as a massive shock for him because usually she pretended as if they didn't even know each other. Then she explained to him that all of her friends were out and it was raining outside and she wasn't up for her hair getting ruined. Arthur had rolled his eyes at this.

Morgana then asked if she could borrow Arthur's laptop, and he didn't feel like arguing that he was working on an essay, nor did he feel like continuing working on said essay, so he handed it over without argument. He couldn't help watching over Morgana's shoulder at what she was doing because hey, it was his laptop, after all, and he was signed into things. She'd typed something into the address bar and a page with a dark blue background appeared and a logo that said Tumblr. He figured the site was a bit slow, though, because the dark blue had quickly changed to an artsy picture and Arthur wasn't even sure what it was, and then it was gone as Morgana hit a button and was led to another page with the same dark blue background as before.

He'd gotten bored of her scrolling after a while and gotten up to clean the room, and after an hour or so, she'd finally handed him back his laptop and left him alone again.

It was around 1AM that same night that Arthur had accidentally opened his history and saw the little white T with the dark blue background lingering on the left side of his screen. He'd clicked it, not sure what would happen when he did, and was led back to a different artsy picture than before, but the layout looked about the same.

The sign-up for Tumblr seemed to be staring at him from the middle of the screen, and after a good ten minutes of debate, he'd figured who could it hurt? and typed in his email, the same password he used for everything, and chose a username. His choice, mrcamelot, for his hometown, had made a grin light up his face because even though he was in university in London, he would always love Camelot, and as far as he was concerned, he was Camelot.

Then a bunch of blogs popped up and none of them had really intrigued him, but he followed a few nonetheless. After browsing around a bit (and lots of google searches of how to actually navigate the site), he'd finally started to get the hang of things and even made his very first post.

mrcamelot: how the fuck did i end up on this website

It was dumb, but hey, it was what he was thinking.

And that was how it started.

That first post, which had been posted three months ago, had around a hundred thousand notes, and it wasn't even one of his most popular. He'd reached seventy thousand followers just a week ago, which had surprised him because seventy thousand people followed him, read his posts and laughed. Seventy thousand people thought he was funny. That was a lot of people.

They thought he was funny even when he posted stupid shit like

_mrcamelot: what the fuck did my roommate make me for breakfast i think this is a mix of kraft dinner and piss_

Within a minute, the post has five thousand notes. He really does love his followers.

He is then hit with a pillow that lands in his Kraft Dinner and piss mixture and he looks up to see Lance glaring at him.

"It's just Kraft Dinner, you ass," Lance mutters as he closes the lid of his own laptop.

"Oh, don't pout," Arthur taunts while jutting his bottom lip out in a pouty face that mocked his friend.

"I need that back," Lance says, nodding his head toward the pillow in the Kraft Dinner. Arthur throws it to him, making sure the dirty side hits him in the face, and Lance tosses it to the side with a grimace.

"Did that fall in the Kraft Dinner?!" Lance yells, mouth gaping at Arthur who was nearly falling off his chair laughing.

"Next time, there will be piss," Lance mutters, standing up and stalking off to his dresser.

"Come on, lighten up," Arthur says, picking up the pillow and stripping off the case. He throws it into the growing pile of dirty laundry and makes a mental note to get Lance to do it.

Ten thousand notes. Arthur finds himself grinning stupidly at the computer screen, ignoring Lance who scoffs and rolls his eyes at the ten thousand people laughing at his expense. Arthur loves his followers, he loves them a lot. They're crazy and fucked up and just plain strange, but he loves them and they love him and he really doesn't need all those messages in his inbox telling him he was hilarious because his ego is big enough as it is.

And when Morgana joins him in his dorm again- it's a storm this time- and asks to borrow his laptop, Arthur can't help but feel a bit panicked at the thought that he left his Tumblr logged in, but when she opens the page he's relieved to find he hasn't.

He lets her go about her business for however long, until she starts laughing so hard that he has to ask or he figured it would never end.

"Just this post," Morgana answers when she catches her breath.

"Which one?"

She hands the laptop to Arthur, who reads the post, which seemed oddly familiar. Then he looks at the source of the post to find the reason it seemed familiar, because the source is yours truly, _mrcamelot._

"Yeah, I guess it is a bit funny," Arthur shrugs. The post says something about how much he hates running- actually, to be exact, the post says

_mrcamelot: if i have to run one more fucking foot i swear to god im going to have a full blown heart attack someone get the paramedics on speed dial_

But Arthur doesn't find it that funny. He doesn't understand why anyone finds it funny. It was what he'd thought at the time, and so he'd posted it.

"I follow him, _mrcamelot._ He's hilarious," Morgana says, and with a glance over her shoulder Arthur finds that she'd made her way to his blog. "I've never seen him, he doesn't post many pictures of himself, but I'll bet he's hot."

"Morgana!" Arthur gasps, snatching the laptop from her hands and bringing himself back to the top of her dashboard.

"What are you doing? I was-" Morgana begins to argue, but Arthur sushes her as he logs out of her blog and into his. "You have a Tumblr?" Morgana asks, sounding shocked, and Arthur ignores her as he hits the sign in button and hands her back the laptop, pointing to the URL in the corner. "Ew! Arthur, what the hell?! Why didn't you tell me?! I almost... Ew!"

Arthur, to his own dismay, finds himself amused at his sisters reaction. Then he types in her URL and follows her, and closes his laptop.

After she leaves, Arthur opens the laptop again and begins scrolling through his dash. He has to appreciate the fact that his followers are so dedicated and he is so grateful about that. The great thing about Tumblr, he finds, is that no matter what he says, there is always people who agree with him.

And the day he finally came out to his followers, he has to admit he was nervous. But he'd about had it with all the messages asking if he had a girlfriend that if he hadn't done it he'd have gone insane.

And the post went a little something like

_mrcamelot: god damn i would fucking tear ryan reynolds to shreds he can get it any day of the week_

And then his inbox is filled with more messages than he'd ever had. Most of them are supportive, but the odd homophobic one that says something about dick up the ass results in a nice "dick is better than the stick you've got up your ass come back once you pull it out bye" from Arthur and he has to admit that even though it is a bit rude, they deserve it.

Of course hate never gets to him, it never really has. Sure, the occasional message makes him cry just a bit (a lot), but he can always count on Lance to be there with a cup of stereotypical British tea and seasons one through ten of FRIENDS on DVD.

He loves Lance, he really does, and Lance loves him back. Not in a i wanna make out with you kind of way, more of a best friend you are my fucking best friend (yes that is a song, and it may be a horrible song but Arthur fucking loves it) way.

And Lance does eventually get back at him when Arthur comments on how Taylor Swift has yet another boyfriend and Lance adds to the post, telling Arthur's seventy thousand followers that he sings We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together in the shower at the top of his lungs.

His comment about Taylor Swift earns him a week's worth of Taylor Swift fans attacking him, and Arthur takes it in stride. He's gotten into way worse fights than that.

But none of them can beat the day he starts World War Three: the Hipster war.

________________________________________

The day starts out pretty normal.

Lance pulls him out of bed by the foot, feeds him shit on a plate and forces him to get dressed after Arthur whines about the law banning nudity on the streets. He continues whining after Lance doesn't agree to start a nudist revolution with him, and his followers whine with him after he posts about Lance being against his nudist movement.

And then Lance confiscates his laptop and insists that Arthur get out and see the sun. Arthur begins to argue, then shut his mouth when Lance put his arm next to his and Arthur noticed for the first time how pale he was.

"I don't need a tan," Arthur argues but it isn't very strong because the denial in his voice is clear. "The sun has those ray things and they can cause cancer or AIDS or whatever."

"Arthur, the sun cannot give you AIDS. You get AIDS from getting laid, and with your current skin tone, that is not happening any time soon," Lance remarks, and for once in his life, Arthur can't think of a comeback.

Lance gives him a victory smirk, and the two of them make off to the string of shops down the road.

"Where are we going?" Arthur asks, squinting his eyes against the sun.

"New café. I heard they have incredible tea," Lance answers.

When they finally show up, Arthur is surprised to see that Gwaine, Leon and Percy are at the exact same place as him and Leon. So Arthur joins them, Lance behind him.

"Hey, look who came to visit!" Gwaine calls when Arthur sits down next to him.

"Since when do you leave your room?" Arthur asks him sarcastically.

"I could ask you the exact same thing, mister Tumblr famous," Gwaine laughs.

"It's not my fault I have an incredible sense of humor," Arthur scoffs, and Gwaine rolls his eyes and mutters something about modesty.

"So, Lance, what's good here?" Arthur asks, and when he doesn't get an answer, he snaps his fingers in front of Lance's face and the boy nearly falls backwards off his chair.

"Sorry, what?" Lance stutters.

"What were you staring at?" Arthur asks him, trying to follow Lance's line of sight. He ignores his friend insisting that it's nothing until his eyes finally land on Gwen Smith.

"A-ha!" Arthur slams his hands down on the table. "Gwen Smith, I should have known!"

"Wanna yell it louder?!" Lance yells, his hand covering Arthur's mouth.

"Sorry. But seriously, mate, it's been, what, two years? You've been fawning over her for two years and you're still in the friendzone," Arthur shakes his head at his friend and looks up at the menu hanging above the café counter.

"It's not my fault, she had a crush on you for the first two months I knew her," Lance mutters, and Arthur suppresses a laugh.

"Yeah, and then she found out that I'm gay and she still won't look me straight in the eye," and this time Arthur does laugh. And so do Leon and Percival. "You never answered my question, though. What's good here? Other than Gwen, I mean."

The look Lance gives him makes him laugh even harder, and Arthur never does get an answer for his question so he just settles for a hot chocolate- Arthur never was one for coffee- and gets up to order it.

But since the place is new, it's packed, and Arthur starts mobile blogging on his phone to pass the time until one of the slow ass employees finally decides to serve him.

"Hello, what can I get for you?" a male's voice asks, and Arthur looks up from his phone at the same time the boy looks up from his notebook and they look into each other's eyes and the boy is fucking beautifuland Arthur is speechless and it's some kind of bloody movie moment or some shit.

And then the fireworks going off behind the boy's head fade when the voice cuts into Arthur's thoughts. "Excuse me? Can I get you anything?"

Arthur blinks, then shakes his head quickly and laughs to hide how fucking embarrassed he is. "Yeah, sorry, my mind is totally gone today. I'll take a, uh, a hot chocolate. Please," Arthur stutters, surprised he got through that whole thing without slurring or missing any words.

"What size?"

"Uh, medium," Arthur says, deciding that his original plan to order a large is shit because he does not want this beautiful specimen thinking he's a fat ass. And then he notices that the boy has one blue eye and one gold eye and Arthur is all the more fascinated.

"Alright, wait here and I'll get that for you," the boy smiles and Arthur grips the counter because he's certain his knees are going to give out.

After a minute or so, the boy returns with the drink in his hand and hands it to Arthur, and the movie continues as Arthur's hand brushes the boy's when he takes the drink from him.

He rushes away from the counter as fast as he can without spilling the drink and climbs into his chair, wanting to just curl up and die.

"Looks like you found something else that's good here," Lance smirks at him, and Arthur ignores the confused looks he gets by Gwaine, Percival and Leon and begins quickly trying to stomach all the hot chocolate so he can just get the hell out of there. And when he finally does, he casts a glance over his shoulder at the black-haired boy who is busy making a drink. For a moment, he debates going back and asking the boy for his name, but decides against it as he severely lacks social skills and would probably look more like an idiot than he already has. So he leaves.

The rest of the day consists of him eating away the despair of embarrassing himself in front of that boy and Tumblr.

_mrcamelot: so is it true that you can meet your soul mate in a café or is that just some movie shit because oh my god_

His ask box is then filled with hundreds of messages asking about the so-called love of Arthur's life, and he decides to answer one.

_mrcamelot: yeah he's taller than me and he has black hair and he's fucking adorable and his eyes don't even get me started on his eyes_

And as he scrolls through his messages, he comes across one that asks what the boys name is and Arthur is sad all over again.

_mrcamelot: i have no idea i was just kinda blinded and it didn't even occur to me to ask_

He goes back to his dashboard and as he scrolls he notices a fight going in between some hipster and one of his friends. He isn't sure what they're fighting about, but he decides he may as well help out his friend.

_mrcamelot: hey man im pretty sure mordred couldn't give less of a shit and nobody on this website cares about what you're saying so piss the fuck off_

And apparently this guy has a lot of followers himself, because Arthur has about sixteen people on his ass after that.

After reading through a few of the responses, he finally answers one of them. Some person who's URL is m-agic4l. Sounds like either a girl or a very feminine guy.

_m-agic4l: Hey friend, come on, that's enough._

Arthur rolls his eyes as he hits the reblog button and types out a reply.

_mrcamelot: do i know u_

And then the boy replies and Arthur forgets the fact that the fight isn't his, it's Mordred's. All he needs to do at that moment is teach this m-agic4l idiot a lesson.

_m-agic4l: I'm Emrys. :)_

_mrcamelot: so i don't know you then_

_m-agic4l: Guess not.x_

_mrcalemot: ok tell me emrys what makes u think u can come in here and tell me how to live my life_

_m-agic4l: I didn't mean to, sorry. it's just that you were being a bit mean to my friend Daegal and he hads't done anything to you.x_

_mrcamelot: ok well maybe if daegal wasnt being such an ass to mordred i wouldn't have had to step in_

He figures he may as well creep the kid, just to see what he's up against. So he clicks on the URL and it brings him to one of the most hipster blogs he's ever seen. He made the mistake of leaving his speakers on full volume, and the boy's autoplay turns on to some indie song by an band that Arthur's never even heard of. He quickly hits the mute button and casts a glance over at Lance, who is still sound asleep like a rock. As he scrolls, he finds that Emrys lives in some small ass town called Ealdor, is pansexual (what the fuck is pansexual anyway, just call yourself bi if that's what you are), and is a photographer but doesn't post pictures of himself. And as Arthur creeps him, he finds that this boy is the complete fucking epitome of hipster.

And he also finds that m-agic4l is not only a hipster blog, but he is one of those hipster blogs that posts the pictures that other hipster blogs reblog. This bloke is one popular hipster.

He clicks back to page one of the boy's blog to see that he's replied, and it's a comment Arthur can't be bothered to think of a comeback to so he just tells Emrys that his photography is shit and that hipsters need to go back to whatever fucking planet they came from and signed out.

He doesn't know why he said that m-agic4al's photography was shit though, because he creeped him and he has to admit that the boy is an incredible photographer and Arthur is in no place to judge because he'd broken the last camera he owned by smashing it against the pavement because he couldn't figure out how to work the wretched thing.

He looks over at Lance again, who had fallen asleep an hour or so ago, then gets up and leaves his dorm to go to the bathroom.

As he's washing his hands, he hears the sound of the door open and does his best to ignore the stranger who entered.

But he can't ignore the fact that they're crying a lot harder than Arthur has ever heard a boy his age cry so he decides to see who it is.

And as he rounds the corner to the shower area, his gaze is met by café boy.

Café boy, who's eyes are puffy and bloodshot and his hair is a matted mess and his shirt is three sizes too big and his boxers are nearly falling off his waist. But despite all that, he still manages to be the most beautiful boy that Arthur has ever seen.

Café boy wipes his nose with his sleeve and mutters a quick apology before attempting to duck under Arthur's outstretched arm and escape the bathroom, but Arthur is having none of it.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asks him, who avoids his gaze and stares down at the ground.

"Nothing, it's nothing," he stutters, shaking his head and staring at the ground.

"Are you sure? Because it sure doesn't look like nothing," Arthur says with a raised eyebrow.

Café boy shakes his head again, mutters "I'm just being stupid," and steps around Arthur, leaving him alone again.

________________________________________

The next morning consists of Arthur sulking alone in his dorm- Lance is gone to classes and Arthur is too lazy to get up or grab his phone or even move, so he just lays there with the blankets covering his head and his knees pulled up to his chest.

All he can think about is his encounter with café boy the night before. He wishes he'd told him why he was crying, he wishes he'd told him his name.

But at least he knows that he goes to Avalon University, and stays in the same dorm building as him, so the night wasn't all bad.

(Though it was mostly bad.)

When Arthur finally does work up the energy to get up, the only thing he does is walk across the room to the desk, open his laptop and sign into Tumblr.

And he's instantly awake when he sees his dashboard.

He has 783 new asks.

He isn't sure why he has more asks in his inbox than he'd ever had before, and he isn't exactly sure he wants to know. But he clicks on the box nonetheless, and he regrets it instantly.

Hate message after hate message after hate message.

The first thirty messages in his inbox are all hate for what he'd said to m-agic4l. And then he realizes that some people actually agree with what he'd said, as if he was actually being fucking serious when he'd said it.

And people had started #exterminatehipstersand his followers are at war with m-agic4l's followers and as he scrolls down his dashboard, he just wants to die.

He isn't even sure how long he's been sitting there staring at m-agic4l's reply to his comment. All it says is _Thanks._ The stupid fucking classy little hipster fucking shit with his proper punctuation and grammar thinks he's above Arthur by not remarking back and it infuriates Arthur beyond comprehension because this fucking twat has no fucking right to imply that he's better than Arthur, he has no right at all!

And when the door opens, Arthur can't even hear Lance calling his name because he's just so fucking mad and his ears are ringing with fury. He finally looks up when the laptop closes and he realizes that he isn't even crying, he's fucking bawling his eyes out and he just doesn't know what to do.

Lance pulls up a chair and sits next to him, opening the laptop again and reading m-agic4l and Arthur's fight before going to Arthur's ask box, which has 157 new messages in it that Arthur doesn't even want to see.

Lance reads through them, his expression unreadable, before turning back to Arthur.

"Don't listen to them, okay? Don't. They have no right to say those things about you. But honestly, Arthur, what were you thinking?"

Arthur sniffs and wipes his nose with his sleeve. "I didn't mean it! I was just mad and tired and I didn't think it would end up this big! I wasn't being serious!"

Lance sighs, giving Arthur a hug. "I know you didn't mean it."

And then Lance is logging into his own Tumblr and typing out a text post that says

_lancalot: look here I know what arthur said was a bit uncalled for but you all need to seriously back the fuck off okay it's over and done with so let it go_

and Arthur smiles because he really fucking loves Lance.

And then his Tumblr is logged in again and Lance is reblogging his post on Arthur's account and then they're back on m-agic4l's blog and Arthur is reading all his posts from that morning.

One ask in particular stands out.

_anonymous: ok man u need to get ur followers to step the fuck off arthurs back like making them attack him is fucking wrong fuck you you fucking fuck_

And Arthur is smiling again because he fucking loves his followers, too. A lot. But all the fucking m-agic4l twat replied to it was _I would never_. and Arthur is mad all over again.

He lets himself calm down as Lance scrolls down m-agic4l's blog and mentally curses at himself for letting hate get to him.

And though he'd never admit it, he really wishes he hadn't said anything to m-agic4l.

________________________________________

For some reason, Arthur seems surprised when he walks into the café to find that café boy is working. He knew he works there, so why is he so surprised?

He quickly looks down at his outfit, sighing in relief at his motivation to actually look nice that day, and slowly walks further into the place.

He stands in the line, awkwardly shifting the laptop and books in his hands as he thinks about what to say to the boy and what to do and what to order. The last thing he wants is to embarrass himself again.

He's stuck behind some annoying blokes who are gossiping about something that Arthur can't be bothered to eavesdrop on, and he does his best to tune them out while simultaneously hating himself for forgetting his headphones.

A week has past since the hipster war began, and he's been trying his best to avoid the limelight and stay out of trouble while making his usual pointless posts.

And although he attempted to resign from the war, he's still getting hate from hipsters and his followers seem to feel the need to update him on the current status of the war, and he really hates m-agic4l for starting all of this.

He smiles at Gwen when she asks for his order, which is a medium hot chocolate again, and advances to the bar stools to wait for his drink.

"Hello," a voice says, and Arthur's head whips up to see café boy looking at him.

"Hi," Arthur replies, trying to sound normal.

"You're Arthur, right?" Café boy asks, and Arthur nods.

"That's me," he smiles, holding his free hand out. Café boy looks down at his own hands, which are both full as he makes the drinks, then back up at Arthur with a laugh.

Arthur laughs, too, though he feels like standing up on the chair and face planting onto the ground. But instead he sets down his laptop and text books and tries to avoid eye contact as he opens his laptop and begins scrolling through Tumblr, forgetting all about studying- even though the open textbooks are making him feel a bit guilty- until café boy brings his attention back to his books by spilling his hot chocolate all over them.

"I'm so sorry!" He yells, grabbing a handful of napkins and rushing around the bar to stand beside Arthur, who helps him wipe up all the spilt drink.

"It's alright, they're just books, not like I was going to read them anyway," Arthur laughs, which is a lie because he really needs to study and now he most likely is going to spend all night trying to make the pages readable again, but he isn't about to tell café boy that.

"I've completely ruined them, I'm so sorry," the black-haired boy says, biting his lip and scrubbing the counters as fast as Arthur assumed he can.

"It's really fine," Arthur laughs, and the boy shakes his head.

"I'll pay for them, how much did they cost?"

Arthur laughs again, picking up the book and wiping off the pages. "It's really not that big of a deal."

Café boy looks down at Arthur, who gives him a smile, before picking up all the soiled napkins and returning to the other side of the bar to throw them away. "I'll make you a new one and give you a card for a free drink next time you come," he tells Arthur with a hopeful smile and all Arthur can think to do is smile back and nod.

He sits in silence again until his drink arrives, spill-free.

"Thank you," Arthur smiles, and café boy nods.

"No problem. Here's your free drink card," he says as he hands Arthur the card. He takes it and slides it into his wallet, figuring it may come in handy as an excuse to come there again.

He's sitting right near the drink-making area, and café boy is making drinks, so Arthur figures he may as well start a conversation. As much as he hates social interaction, he has to admit that he's good at talking to people.

"So, when did you start working here?" Arthur asks, and café boy raises an eyebrow at him.

"When it opened," he answers, and Arthur nearly punches himself in the face. Spoke too soon.

"Right," he says, looking down at his drink and swishing it around in the cup.

"Do you work anywhere?" The question catches Arthur off guard because he thought he'd humiliated himself and is so awkward that café boy is never going to speak to him again, and Arthur physically splutters before gathering enough dignity off the floor to shake his head.

The boy smiles and puts a lid on the drink he was making before handing it to the person standing behind Arthur.

"What's your major?" Café boy asks, and once again Arthur is caught off-guard.

"Psychology," Arthur answers. "What about you?"

The black-haired boy smiles at the question before answering, "photography."

"Really?" Arthur questions, and café boy nods.

"Yeah. It's amazing, capturing pictures. It's like, you're in a moment you're never going to see ever again, and you can physically capture it and look back on it as many times as you want. You're literally saving moments and I just think that's really cool, you know?"

Arthur nods, a smile crossing his own face at this boy's love for what he does. He could listen to him talk for hours and not get bored.

"So, psychology. That's cool, I mean, you get to study some interesting things. Is it something you enjoy?" Café boy asks, and Arthur shrugs.

"It's what my best grades qualified me for."

Café boy shakes his head slightly, his eyebrows furrowing together as his lips form a tight line. "See, I don't think that's right at all. You should do what you love, not what you're qualified for. Unless, I mean, you're qualified for what you love, but if you don't love it, why do it? What's the point if its not something you enjoy?"

Arthur smiles even bigger, and his cheeks start to hurt. "You're right. I do like psychology, it's interesting. But, honestly, if I were to do what I really wanted, I'd go for acting and such. I would love to be a stunt double in bigshot movies and stuff."

"So do it! If that's what you really want to do, that's what you should be doing!"

And they talk about majors and school and such until Arthur is suddenly struck with a thought that stops him mid-sentence.

"I still don't know your name."

Café boy looks a bit shocked at this, then breaks into a wide smile. "My name's Merlin. Nice to meet you," he says, holding his hand out to Arthur and Arthur laughs at the irony as he shakes Merlin's hand.

Arthur learns that Merlin is nineteen, making him in his second year, which is a year younger than Arthur, who is twenty and in his third year. And he learns that Merlin's favorite color is red, and that his different-colored eyes are hereditary because his father has a blue and a gold, too, and he has a dog named Kilgharrah that he calls Killy, and that his mother owns a farm back home and he got his very first horse when he was only seven, who's name is Tempest, and that the horse is still alive today. And Arthur debates if it'd be rude to cut him off in the middle of his sentence by grabbing him by the odd neckerchief tied around his neck and slamming their lips together.

And then they talk for another hour as Merlin worked, and Arthur didn't even realize that someone had come into the café to take Merlin's shift and Merlin sat right down beside him. They talk straight until Gwen came over to them to tell them that the café was closing at it was only then that Arthur realized that it was midnight and Lance was probably having a conniption trying to figure out where Arthur went.

"This was nice," Merlin smiles to Arthur as they walk to the door together.

Arthur smiles back with a nod and fishes around his bag for his phone to hand to Merlin. "Put your number in here, I'll text you sometime."

Merlin obliges, and Arthur sends the number a message with his name, and when he hits the home button he finds that Merlin has set his wallpaper to a photo of himself and he gives Merlin a look that makes him laugh before sliding the phone back into his pocket.

"It was really nice meeting you, we'll have to do this again sometime," Arthur says, and Merlin beams with a nod.

"Definitely. I'll see you soon, Arthur."

"See you."

And as Arthur walks the opposite way down the sidewalk, he can't help but glance over his shoulder at Merlin and sigh.

When he finally makes it home, after tuning out Lance's lecture on telling people where you're going before disappearing for hours on end, he doesn't even bother to check his Tumblr before he passes out on his bed, still in the same clothes that he'd worn to the café.

He is rudely awoken the next morning by Lance pulling his blanket away from him because he has a class at 6:00AM and it's already 5:23AM. He rolls over-dramatically off the side of the bed and hits the ground with a thud, then pulls himself into a sitting position and leans his head back on the bed.

"Let's go, come on! Bathroom time, you smell like shit, at least brush your teeth," Lance says, grabbing Arthur's hands and pulling him to his feet.

Arthur groans with a wistful glance over his shoulder at his bed, and debates skipping his classes and just sleeping in for once in his life, but instead he follows Lance to the bathroom.

As he rounds the corner toward the shower area, he crashes- literally crashes- into someone, and they both land on the floor.

Arthur pulls himself into a sitting position and looks over at the person he knocked over, and finds himself laughing when he recognizes Merlin's face.

"Well, this sure is a coincidence," Arthur laughs, pulling himself to his feet and offering his hand to Merlin, who takes it and allows Arthur to pull him to his feet.

"I just can't get rid of you," Merlin grins as he fixes the bottom of his shirt, and Arthur actually falls in love with him a little bit more when he sees the band on his shirt is The Beatles.

"Do you want to?" Arthur asks with a smirk, and it comes out a bit more seductive than he'd intended.

But Merlin only shrugs and scratches behind his ear. "If I'm honest, I'd like to keep you around," he says, and when he sees Arthur's shocked reaction, his eyebrows raise and he begins stuttering, "sorry, I didn't mean to-"

And then Arthur is laughing again and he gives Merlin a soft punch in the shoulder. "It's alright, and if it's fine by you, I'd like to stick around."

And Merlin is back to grinning and Arthur returns it as Lance rounds the corner, nothing but boxers on and his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.

"Arthur, you've got class in less than a half hour," he says, then notices Merlin standing there and looks a bit awkward, being in only his boxers and having just slurred like crazy around his toothbrush.

"Hey, you're Lance Lake! You're that guy who Gwen never shuts up about-" Merlin blurts, and his hands fly to his mouth when he realizes what he'd said, and Lance's jaw drops and his toothbrush hits the floor of the bathroom, and Arthur finds himself laughing way harder than he should be but Jesus, this was too good.

"I didn't say that, you didn't hear anything," Merlin stutters again as he shakes his head, staring down at his feet.

"I fucking called it!" Arthur cheers, throwing his hands in the air victoriously and doing some sort of fist pump type thing. "I knew it! Lance never shuts up about Gwen, either. Ever."

Merlin gives him a grateful smile and Lance gives him a glare, but Arthur ignores him and smiled back at Merlin.

"Gwen... I... No. No, you're going to be late, Arthur," Lance mutters, gripping Arthur's arm so tight that it actually hurt, and Lance pulls him out of the bathroom as Arthur waves goodbye to Merlin, and Merlin waves back, and Arthur pretends to punch Lance in the back of the head which makes Merlin laugh, and Arthur can hear the laughter ringing in his ears all the way back to his dorm.

________________________________________

It's 9AM by the time Arthur finally gets back to his dorm, and he lands face-down on the bed and lays there for about ten minutes before pulling himself up and grabbing his laptop.

He signs into Tumblr and scrolls through his dash, unsurprised to see that #exterminatehipsters is still running strong. He rolls his eyes as he passes an uncountable number of posts between hipsters and comedy blogs, and his guilt is eating him alive until he finally types in m-agic4l's URL and faces the page he's been avoiding.

The guilt grows as he scrolls down, noticing that the #exterminatehipsters tag hasn't stopped m-agic4l from posting his pictures, and Arthur can't help but roll his eyes at all the captions below the pictures.

_m-agic4l: I would sail over oceans just to see you smile .xx_

_m-agic4l: If I was DaVinci, you'd be Mona Lisa, paint a smile perfectly on you.x_

_m-agic4l: Don't sell your heart, don't say we're not meant to be .x_

Arthur scoffs at all of them, this idiot is just ridiculous.

And he continues scrolling and there is an excessive amount of eye rolling before Arthur comes across an ask.

_anonymous: oh my goD U AND ARTHUR ARE MY OTP OK I SHIP IT SO HARD OKOK ARTHRYS U GUYS I JUST JDJSJJDKSDIKSNDOEND INM_

_m-agic4l: lol, ok??? i guess you can "ship" whatever you'd like (what does that even mean?), but I'm pretty sure he hates me, sooooooo...x_

And Arthur debates tossing his laptop out the window so he doesn't have to deal with this bloody idiot and his stupid fucking hipster blog.

He refreshes the page, and a new ask appeares on the very top m-agic4l's blog.

_fucking-ducking: lol how do u not know what ship means but srsly u and arthur are just shsjidjdosso_

_m-agic4l: lmaoo, no i don't know what it means, should i?xx_

Arthur slams his face down on the keyboard because this boy was dumber than he'd thought, and clicks on the link to Emrys' ask box.

_mrcamelot: they ship us because they think we'd look good together (ship like relationship) which is rly fckin weird by the way but really how do u have a tumblr and not know that love????_

He presses send without even thinking about it, and then hesitates when the box turns gray and says your question has been sent, and Arthur slams his face on the keyboard again because it seems that he's far too reckless when it comes to m-agic4l.

He then goes back to his dashboard and sees that he has twenty-nine new messages, and his stomach does a flip or two (or ten) as he clicks on it and sees that the top ask is about Emrys.

_frickingsatan: oh mu gofd you calltf him love otp otp otp otp #arthrys forever obsknshsj_

_mrcamelot: lmao i didn't mean it literally I'm just a total Brit I guess and arthrys sounds like arthritis wtf where did that name even come from lol_

Arthur figures he sounds a bit asshole-ish, but posts the ask anyway.

And then he gets annoyed by all the stupid "arthrys" shippers in his inbox and refreshes Emrys' blog to find that he'd answered Arthur's ask.

_m-agic4l: oooohhh, okkkk, thanks!!! learn something new every day, right?? ;)x_

Arthur runs a hand through his hair and sighs, because as much as he keeps denying it to himself, the stupid fucking classy little hipster fucking twat really doesn't irk Arthur as much as he'd thought he did.

Arthur decides that he just really fucking hates hipsters, a lot, and slams his laptop shut, then for the second time that day debates throwing it out the window, but instead he sets it on the floor and pulls the blankets over his head.

And he can't tell who was the last person on his mind before he fell asleep, Merlin or Emrys.

________________________________________

Arthur, Lance and Gwaine are sitting on the grass, Arthur leaning against a tree with his eyes closed to block out the sun while Lance lays on the grass and Gwaine sits up, a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth and Arthur finds himself breathing out of his mouth because no matter how many times he's been around smokers, the smoke still bothers him.

Gwaine has his mobile plugged into a speaker and a quiet guitar melody is playing, and Arthur recognizes Ed Sheeran's voice but he doesn't know the title of the song. He does know all the words because it's one of Gwaine's favorites and every time Arthur is with him, this song comes on at least twice, so Arthur can't help but sing along.

He cracks an eye open to see Gwaine smirking at him as he turns up the volume and joins Arthur in his sing-along, and Lance joins too, and Arthur isn't sure if he should find it odd that three twenty year old men are singing along to Ed Sheeran together.

But when Arthur gets sidetracked and doesn't sing the bridge, Gwaine cracks an eye open and follows Arthur's line of sight to see what's distracted him.

"Merlin!" Gwaine calls, waving him over to the three of them. "My main man," he says when Merlin reaches them and Arthur realizes that Gwaine has probably known Merlin for a while, and he nearly throws something at him for not introducing them earlier.

"Gwaine," Merlin nods at him with a polite smile. "Are you listening to Gold Rush?"

Arthur glances over at Gwaine's speaker, and the title of the song, of course, reads Gold Rush.

"Yup. Ed's a genius," Gwaine says, and Merlin nods in agreement and Arthur can't help but notice how his eyes light up when he goes into a ramble of how much he loves Ed Sheeran, and it's about the most adorable thing Arthur's ever seen.

"Wanna sit?" Gwaine asks, cutting Merlin off halfway through his sentence, and Artgur nearly smacks him because he was really enjoying Merlin talking and Gwaine had just went and ruined a beautiful moment.

Merlin looks as if he's about to say yes, but before he can Gwen jogs over to them. "Merlin, we were supposed to meet at the- oh, hello."

Arthur casts a sideways glance at Lance, who's averted his gaze to his mobile but Arthur can see the slight red tone of his cheeks and he doesn't even think before he blurts out, "hey, Gwen, why don't you and Merlin join us?"

He barely restrains a laugh as he sees Lance's eyes widen, and Gwen and Merlin both sit down with the rest of them.

"Taking pictures, I see," Gwaine muses as he jerks his chin in the direction of the camera hanging from a strap around Merlin's neck, and Merlin looks down at it before shaking his head.

"I wasn't taking pictures," he says, a bit shyly, and Arthur dies a bit inside. "Just carrying it around, I just got out of class."

Gwaine nods, and Arthur realizes he hasn't said a single thing the whole time, but he was so distracted by watching the ever-changing expression on Merlin's face and the way his eyelashes flutter when he blinks and that small trace of a smile no matter what. There is always a smile on his face, Arthur finds, and as Merlin concentrates on what Gwaine is saying Arthur finds himself completely distracted by that smile so that he doesn't even know what they're talking about.

Arthur doesn't know what it is about this stupid boy with a stupid camera around his neck and his stupid being that has Arthur completely besotted, and even when Merlin looks up at him, Arthur doesn't tear his eyes away. Merlin gives him a smile, a bit reserved but there all the same.

Arthur figures he'd hate Merlin if he were anyone else. But he can't possibly hate Merlin, not with this stupid fondness he can't nor wants to get rid of.

He then remembers he's supposed to meet Morgana for coffee in a half hour, and he has to walk there so he really has to go.

"Hey, uh, I have to go, actually," Arthur says as he stands up, meeting Merlin's eyes for a moment before the boy looks away.

"You do?" Lance questions, looking up at him from his conversation with Gwen, and Arthur nods.

"Morgana," he explains, and it's enough for Lance to understand and his friend nods with a smile as Arthur escapes the crowd and takes off in the direction of the coffee shop.

________________________________________

He makes it there only a minute late but you'd think he'd taken an hour with the way Morgana's glaring at him.

"You're late," she says, fumbling around with the coffee cup in her hands.

"By a minute," Arthur scoffs.

"Better three hours early than one minute late," Morgana shrugs as she takes a sip of her drink.

"Oh yes, because I have enough time in my life to come here three bloody hours early," Arthur rolls his eyes as he shrugs off his jacket, placing it on the back of his chair and taking a seat.

Morgana stifles a laugh as she takes another sip of her drink, and Arthur sits down and places his arms on the table.

"So, who is it?" Morgana asks and Arthur's eyes widen to the size of the moon.

"Who's what?" He asks, trying not to sound nervous but Morgana sees right through it.

"The guy you've fallen head over heels for," she says, narrowing her eyes at him.

"There is no guy," Arthur shakes his head, digging out his wallet and searching through it to find money, but really he was just finding an excuse not to look his stepsister in the eye.

"Arthur, I know you and I can tell that there's somebody on your mind."

Arthur's head snaps up at that sentence and he can hardly tell if she's telling him the truth or not.

"How can you possibly tell?" He asks, and she sets down her drink and gives him a serious look.

"Because you're smiling."

Arthur looks a bit taken aback by this, and Morgana laughs. "I follow your Tumblr, or did you forget? If you're trying to keep it a secret, don't post about it all over your blog. But, seriously, he must be pretty great to have chased away that storm cloud constantly lingering over your head."

"That was a horrible metaphor," Arthur says with a roll of his eyes as he plays around with the quarter in his hand.

"I couldn't think of a better one off the top of my head," Morgana shrugs. "You never answered my question, though. Who is he?"

"Morgana-"

"Oh, hey, if you don't want to tell me, how's about I call Lance? I'm sure he'll know!" Morgana says threateningly, pulling out her mobile and dialing a number.

"Morgana, no!" Arthur yells, ignoring the looks of everyone in the shop staring at him as he dives across the table and reaches for Morgana's mobile. She's clearly faster than him, though, and dives out of the way and takes off out the door. Arthur follows after collecting his things, and Morgana runs through the crowds of people with Arthur on her heels, and she's apparently a lot more coordinated, too, because she manages to avoid everyone on the sidewalk while Arthur crashes into nearly all of them.

"Hey, Lance! This is Morgana, Arthur's sister. I was wondering if you could tell me the name of the person who my brother has fallen in love with?" Morgana says into the phone as she turns a corner.

"Merlin Ambrosius, alright, thanks Lance!" Morgana smiles as she slides to a stop and turns to face Arthur, and somehow she hasn't broken a sweat while Arthur is panting like crazy and he figures he should really not spend so much time on Tumblr because it's got him ridiculously out of shape.

"I hate you," Arthur breathes, glaring at his sister.

Morgana smirks back at him as she slides her phone into her pocket and says, "no you don't. Now, Merlin Ambrosius! Tell me about him, dear brother."

Arthur gives up trying to hide it, making a mental note to kill Lance in his sleep for telling Morgana Merlin's name as he tells his sister all about his café boy.

________________________________________

Arthur doesn't see Merlin again until a few weeks later.

Despite the fact that he can see him whenever he wants at the café because they have hardly any employees and it seems like Merlin is always working, he hasn't been there lately and hasn't seen Merlin in a while.

So when he spots the familiar red neckerchief (why the hell did he constantly insist on wearing that wretched thing, seriously), his first instinct is to call Merlin's name.

Merlin turns, looking a bit confused at who is calling him, then sees Arthur and waves back, grinning.

Merlin casts a glance over his shoulder at the young girl on the swing, then walks toward Arthur. "Fancy seeing you here," he grins and Arthur rolls his eyes.

"I like to come here to think, what's your excuse?"

"Class work," Merlin shrugs as he holds up the camera hanging around his neck that Arthur had somehow missed.

"Is that your sister?" Arthur asks and jerks his chin in the direction of the girl who had apparently gotten bored of the swing and was approaching the sandbox carefully.

Merlin laughs at this and shakes his head. "Hardly. She's a family friend's daughter. Hey, Freya! Come here!"

The girl looks up from the sandbox and runs over to Merlin, latching onto his leg and making him laugh.

Arthur nearly takes a step backwards. If Tumblr has taught him one thing, it's that children are not to be trusted and that he hates them. Tumblr has brought out his inner hatred for crying children and he has to admit that he hates himself for it, but children aren't his favorite thing in the world.

"Can I go back to the sandbox?" Freya asks politely but it doesn't change Arthur's view on her kind, and Merlin smiles down at her and nods.

"In a second. This is Arthur," Merlin tells the girl who can't be older than seven and Arthur finds himself more nervous in front of a child than he is in front of Merlin and he gives her an awkward smile and waves.

Freya narrows her eyes at Arthur and he can't bring himself to break the eye contact with this kid until she finally shrugs and looks up at Merlin again. "Okay. Can I go now, please?"

Merlin laughs and nods again. "Sure. Actually, I'm done pestering you, so you can go back home. Thanks, Frey," Merlin smiles and the girl returns it before running off in the opposite direction.

"Is she okay to go off on her own?" Arthur asks as he stares after her, and Merlin shrugs.

"'Course. She just lives in that house there," Merlin points to a cozy looking green house and as Arthur is momentarily distracted, Merlin takes it as an opportunity and Arthur is blinded for a moment by the flash of Merlin's camera.

"Sorry, you're just so photogenic," Merlin apologizes as he stares at the photo on the camera screen.

Arthur scoffs and rolls his eyes, grabbing the camera from Merlin and turning his own weapon on him. "Says you. You've got perfect cheekbones," Arthur says as he takes a picture of Merlin before the boy wrestles his camera back and smiles shyly at the ground.

Arthur hesitates for a moment, then lunges forward, grabbing the camera from Merlin's hands again and taking off with it.

"Arthur, hey, that's mine! Give it back!" Merlin calls after him, and Arthur would have been inclined to obey if Merlin's demand hasn't been filled with laughter.

"Come get it," Arthur tells over his shoulder as he leaps over a park bench and turns around as Merlin meets him on the other end.

"Give it back," Merlin demands again, but the smile on his face says otherwise and when the black-haired boy reaches across the bench, Arthur holds it in the air to keep it away from him. Since most of his friends- except Leon and Percival- are shorter than him, it's a tactic that usually works to his advantage, but he's forgotten that Merlin is taller than him- and that Merlin has access to the sitting part of the bench- and the camera is back in its rightful owner's hands once again.

"Alright, alright, you win," Arthur rolls his eyes as Merlin hops off the bench and gives him a victory smirk.

"Good. You really need to grow a bit," Merlin laughs and Arthur opens his mouth to argue but Merlin proves his point by towering over Arthur and all he can think to do is bend down and throw Merlin over his shoulder, taking off toward the playground.

"What are you doing?!" Merlin demands, and Arthur laughs.

"Going on an adventure," Arthur replies and Merlin slams his fist into Arthur's back pitifully. "Okay, so I need to grow, but you need to gain some strength. That was sad," Arthur tells him and Merlin just huffs in response and gives up his attacks, letting Arthur carry him around as if he were a five year old.

He finally sets Merlin down when he makes it to the top of the equipment and Merlin gives him another pitiful punch in his shoulder. Arthur laughs, sitting down at the top of the slide and before he can realize what's happening, he's being pushed down the slide and Merlin is landing on top of him.

It's quite a dumb thing, really. Merlin's staring down at him shyly, his breath tickling the top of Arthur's nose and Arthur isn't entirely sure what to do so he grabs Merlin's arms and flips him over so that Arthur is looking down on him and he smirks and says, "I win."

Merlin laughs, shoving Arthur off and Arthur lands beside Merlin in the sand at the bottom of the slide, and they lay there in silence for a moment until Arthur hears the shutter of Merlin's camera and looks beside him to see that Merlin had taken another picture of him.

He gives Arthur an innocent smile and Arthur gives him an elbow in the side as a response.

And then, somehow, Merlin's head is in the crook of Arthur's neck and Arthur's got his eyes closed and he's certain that he's gong to fall asleep right there so he sits up, feeling a bit bad when Merlin looks as if he's done something wrong, so Arthur smiles down at him reassuringly as they both pull themselves to heir feet and stand in awkward silence for a moment. Then Merlin's got his arms thrown around Arthur's neck in a hug, and Arthur's shock gets the better of him and before he can think to hug him back, Merlin's stepped away and and walking the opposite direction from Arthur.

He stares after him for a moment, and then Merlin turns and smiles at Arthur over his shoulder and Arthur is left wondering what the hell just happened.

But, despite his confusion, he can't help the smile on his face as he walks the other way.

________________________________________

It's 2PM by the time Arthur gets back to his dorm and he's surprised he's made it that far without passing out. He's so tired that he's asleep by the time his head hits the pillow and when he wakes up again, it's 5PM and Lance has returned from wherever he was.

"Ah, look, sleeping beauty has awoken," Lance says as he tosses Arthur a can of his ritualistic morning Coca-Cola.

"Where have you been all day?" Arthur asks, opening the can and taking a drink from it.

"I could ask you the same thing, but I don't think I have to," Lance smirks at Arthur and all Arthur can do to hide is blushing is try to drown himself in his Coca-Cola.

Once he finishes the can and throws it across the room at Lance, he opens his laptop and makes a new post.

_mrcamelot: i just want a cute boy to text me like that'd be awesome i want to talk to a cute boy who loves ryan reynolds as much as i do is that too much to ask_

He tags the post you stupid fucking shit and fucker and posts it without even a second thought, and then he's got twenty new messages because of it so he opens his ask box and reads through the messages, sighing when he sees that they're all about Emrys.

_anonymous: lol has emrys not replied to ur text_

_shittay: emrys probably hasn't replied bc he likes channing tatum more than ryan reynolds (he rly likes channing tatum)_

Arthur decides to answer this one, saying if emrys really likes channing tatum more than ryan reynolds he can smd ok nobody beats ryan reynolds nobody

He publishes the ask because the asker was anonymous, and as he's scrolling he's distracted by his phone vibrating on his end table, and figures it's Morgana when he picks it up and nearly drops it when he sees the name of the person who sent it said Merlin.

_hello goodmorning !x :)_

Arthur has to compose himself before typing out a reply.

_it's like 5pm lol !! but good morning :)_

He sends this, getting bored of his dash and the (27) on the top of his screen is making him feel a bit agitated so he clicks on it and scrolls through more Emrys and Arthrys asks before he sees one that says _i'd love to suck your dick ;)x_ and his heart drops because there's no way in bloody hell that the URL above the ask says m-agic4l.

He blinks one, then twice, then closes the lid of his laptop and opens it again, but m-agic4lis still staring at him through the screen.

He doesn't even know how the hell to reply to the ask, or if he should even reply to it at all.

_well that's flattering and all-_

_im honored but-_

_where and when-_

Eventually he just settles for a simple what, because it's about the only word coming out of his mouth at the moment and he decides to answer privately because he doesn't need to give the Arthrys shippers any other excuse to raid his ask box.

His phone screen lights up again and he reads the message sitting on his lock screen that says well I just woke up so it's technically morning for me ;)xx before sliding his finger across the bottom of his screen and typing out a reply.

_geez merlin do u have no life or something you need to get out sometime instead of sleeping until 5pm ;)_

He ignores the fact that he himself woke up at 5PM, too, and refreshes his ask box to see that there's a new ask from m-agic4l.

_m-agic4l: That wasn't me!!! It was my friend Will, I swear!!_

mrcamelot: well emrys u should really watch what ur friends say on ur blog it'll just give people more reasons to ship us maybe they'll step it up and start making blogs dedicated to shipping us

oh wait

He answers privately, not entirely sure what's going on because he could possibly be having a conversation with m-agic4l.

He looks down at his phone, which is lit up with a new message, and he gets excited until he sees that it's from Lance, asking if he wants anything from the café and Arthur looks around the room, realizing that Lance wasn't there anymore.

And then he goes back to his laptop (and the constant back-and-forth between his laptop and his mobile is making him a bit dizzy) and sees that m-agic4l has replied to him.

_m-agic4l: Well there's really nothing wrong with a bit of friendly shipping!! (did I use that in the proper context?) And if people want to make blogs dedicated to you and me, I have no problems with that!! :)x_

Arthur rolls his eyes and types out a reply which states that fanblogs dedicated to him and Emrys is creepy and weird and Emrys really shouldn't be taking this so lightly, then sends it just in time to see Merlin's reply to his text.

_Nah I don't do much, just sit around on the Internet :)xx_

Arthur has to laugh at this because the Internet is about all he does, too, and Arthur sends him a reply saying _what kind of life is that mr ambrosius???_

The rest of the conversation goes on like this until Arthur gets a response from m-agic4lthat makes him feel really guilty, because m-agic4l has to be one of the nicest people Arthur's ever met- like, seriously, Arthur's been a total douche to this boy and told him his photography is shit, and he's still acting like Arthur is his friend or something and it almost offends Arthur so he types in m-agic4l's URL and clicks the link to his ask box.

_hey so I know I'm like a complete asshole and you've been nothing but nice to me and yeah idk I'm sorry for being a douche and all that_

He sends the ask after retyping it four times, feeling oddly accomplished but still guilty. He doesn't really expect one half-ass apology over the Internet to make up for calling something that m-agic4l really enjoyed and took pride in shit or starting a war with a heap of people, but at least he's not being as ignorant about it as he was.

He closes his laptop, checking his phone to see if Merlin replied to him and when he saw that he hadn't, he pulled the blankets over his head and fell asleep.

________________________________________

It's been a month since the day Arthur and m-agic4l made up, which wasn't even making up as much as Arthur giving a shady apology and m-agic4l accepting it, but hey, it's a step forward and that's good enough for him.

Plus, he's been talking to Merlin more and more, and when he's not texting his café boy he's chatting with m-agic4l, and the day Arthur realized what was happening he'd been in the middle of a conversation with m-agic4l about card games.

So Arthur's life currently consists of school, talking to a boy who he's unhealthily obsessed with, and far too frequent conversations with a hipster that he's not even supposed to like.

What the fuck.

Not to mention the #exterminatehipsters tag is still going strong, but it's not even between Arthur and m-agic4l anymore, just their followers. And the ones who aren't at war with each other are still shipping Arthrys, which Arthur continues to be completely put off by.

He's also been running instead of going to the gym, and no matter how hard he tries, he always ends up at Merlin's café (he really doesn't try that hard, though).

Today's run is no different, and he wipes the sweat off his forehead as he walks into the café, and he throws £2.45 onto the counter and walks over to Merlin who hands him the medium hot chocolate. It's really quite sad that Merlin can have his drink prepared just in time for Arthur to get in, because Arthur gets there at presumably the same time every Tuesday and Thursday, and those are the only two days that Merlin and Gwen both work at the same time.

"This tastes different," Arthur comments as he sets down the mug and glances up at Merlin, who's leaning over to talk to Arthur since the shop is usually dead around this time (and that's why Arthur likes coming there at this specific time).

"I put a dash of vanilla in it while I was making it, do you like it?" Merlin asks with a nervous look.

Arthur laughs with a nod before taking another drink of his hot chocolate. "It's really good, you should do it like this more often."

Merlin smiles, his blue and gold eyes lighting up and Arthur finds his breath taken away, so he stares down at his drink in a weak attempt to hide it. He should really lay off the hot chocolate, though, because he's certain that his bloodstream runs Merlin's hot chocolate which probably isn't very healthy.

Gwen joins their conversation after a while, which isn't rare but doesn't happen often, either. She usually takes care of cleaning up the back of the shop while Merlin cleans the front as he chats with Arthur.

Arthur leaves the café an hour or so later, when the lunch rush starts to come in, and buries his hands in his pockets because the weather is suddenly freezing. Seriously, Autumn should not be this cold.

He trudges down the sidewalk alone, making his way back to his dorm while wondering if his father is going to call him for his birthday next week. He figures against it, at most he'll get a call from one of his father's paid associates with a sad excuse for why his father can't call, but he doesn't care about his father's neglect because he has Lance, Morgana, and Merlin. And the rest if his friends, too. They make up for his father's lack of humanity.

He curls his toes in his shoes in an attempt to preserve heat, an it doesn't help that he's wearing a t-shirt. Seriously, though, when did it get this bloody cold? Arthur can see his breath, for god's sake!

He makes it back to his dorm and changes from his jogging clothes into a pair of sweatpants and a jumper from his closet, and as he shrugs it on it seems a bit unfamiliar until he realizes that it's Merlin's jumper, but he can't bring himself to take it off so it stays.

It's a dark navy blue oversized hoodie without a hood, and the sleeves are too long on Merlin so they're even longer on Arthur.

Arthur finds he really likes the jumper. A lot.

________________________________________

It's on his birthday that Morgana visits him in his dorm, along with Merlin, Gwaine, Leon, Percival and Gwen, and with that entire crowd the place is packed, not to mention the lot of gifts scattered all over Arthur's floor. With the combination of people and cardboard, he can't find a safe path to move from Lance's bed to his own.

His birthday celebration goes on like any other- Percival and Leon stay fairly quiet, Gwaine flirts with Gwen, who politely turns him away and Morgana, who not-so-politely turns him away, and Lance and Arthur joking around with themselves. But Merlin's also there, and he looks a bit out of place since Gwen and Gwaine are talking to Morgana, and Arthur has suspicions that Merlin is a bit intimidated by his sister (he can't really blame him, though, because Morgana is one of those people you're either in love with or terrified of), so he waves Merlin over and Merlin looks grateful as he makes his way over.

"This is quite the crowd," Merlin comments as he sits down next to Arthur.

"They're not even started yet," Lance informs him, and Merlin laughs.

"I'll have to stick around, then."

Arthur can't help but smile at this, at Merlin sticking around for his birthday.

He still hasn't gotten a call from his father, but he doesn't really mind. Or, rather, he tells himself he doesn't. It's not the first time it's happened and he's surrounded by people he loves, so his birthday is pretty good without one lousy phone call.

________________________________________

It's a Thursday, one of Arthur's jog days, and he's sitting in the café at a table instead of at the counter, Merlin across from him on his lunch break. They're both on their phones, Arthur on Tumblr and Merlin doing whatever Merlin does on his mobile. He's going through his ask box, reading messages when he sees a familiar URL.

_m-agic4l: hellooooo Arthur :)xx_

Arthur smiles, which should be odd but isn't because he and m-agic4l are actually what some people would consider- dare he say it- friends.

 _what do u want_ Arthur replies because they're close enough for some friendly banter, right?

He refreshes his ask box, and as he waits for it to load he looks up at Merlin who's biting his lip and staring down at his phone. He looks back down at his own to see that m-agic4l has sent him another ask- which begs the question of how long he's been staring at Merlin.

_m-agic4l: Um... I need some advice._

_mrcamelot: hit me wit it_

He scrolls his dashboard for another five minutes or so, then checks back to his ask box to find that Emrys has sent him a fan mail, probably because the message was too long to send as an ask.

_m-agic4l: So there's this boy and I really, really like him. I think he might like me back, but I'm not sure. He makes me really really happy, but I know he's not happy and that just kills me. He just looks so sad sometimes and that makes me sad because he doesn't deserve to be sad. Not at all. And there's something else. He has a Tumblr, and he hates me on it. At least, I think he does. He doesn't know who I am on here, but I know who he is and I want to tell him the truth but I don't want him to hate me because of who I am on Tumblr. But it's killing me knowing that he hates me when he doesn't know who I am. I just don't know what to do._

He finds his fingers seemingly typing at their own will, and as he types he can't help looking up at Merlin.

_mrcamelot: wow ur so sappy omg but I wouldn't worry about it I mean if he's as lovely as you're saying he is then im sure he'll accept you no matter what, like look at us, we started a war and yet here we are, being friends (I think??)!!! anyone would be lucky to have you you stupid sappy cheesy classy hipster and if the tumblr thing ever does come up, just tell him the truth!! and if you think you have a chance then take it, he might surprise you emrys, but you'll never know until you try! if he does let you down, I'm always here for you to cry to!!!_

He sends this, finding himself surprised at calling m-agic4l by his name, but hoping for the best for him . He really shouldn't care this much about a stupid internet hipster, really.

He looks up at Merlin again, and Merlin is staring at him through narrowed eyes as if he's testing Arthur and Arthur nearly fidgets in his seat, then Merlin looks back down at his mobile and Arthur sits up straight.

"Are you okay, Merlin?" Arthur asks, and Merlin looks up at him, his ever-present smile widening as he nods.

"Of course," he says as he kicks Arthur's feet under the table, and Arthur really can't tell if he's telling the truth.

________________________________________

Mid-December is when Merlin finds out that Arthur is going to be alone for Christmas, because Lance is going to Paris with his girlfriend Gwen (Arthur feels like he's the only one who called it), Morgana's going to Barcelona and Arthur's father is someplace that Arthur couldn't be bothered to pinpoint.

"You can't just stay here alone!" Merlin yells with a stomp of his foot, and Arthur rolls his eyes.

"Of course I can, I've done it before," Arthur scoffs.

"Well, you're not going to do it again. You can come with me," Merlin says, and it's not even an offer, it's a demand.

"Merlin, I'm fine here alone," Arthur insists, but Merlin is having none of it.

"But I'm not fine with you here alone. You can come with me to my mother and grandfather's house and we can spend Christmas together," Merlin says as he walks over to Arthur's bed and sits down.

"Mer-"

"No arguments. It's only a three-hour drive and I could use the company, my car gets lonely," Merlin admits as he throws his legs up onto the bed and lays down.

Arthur sighs, admitting defeat because there's really no arguing with Merlin.

And that's how he ends up in Ealdor on December 23rd.

He was shocked at first to find out that Merlin was from Ealdor, because, from what Emrys had told him, Ealdor was probably one of the smallest towns Arthur will ever visit. It was weird that him and Merlin came from the same tiny place. He wondered if Emrys would be up for a meet-up and made a mental note to ask.

They walk together through the snow-covered yard and towards Merlin's house, and Arthur can't help but notice that Merlin's acting a bit odd. Not at odd as the day in the café, but still just a bit off.

Merlin avoids eye contact with Arthur and keeps mostly to himself and what worries Arthur most of all is that Merlin's ever-present smile isn't present anymore.

He doesn't know if this is typical, or if Merlin has a different way of acting in front of his family (because really, who doesn't?), so he brushes it off. Plus, in the four months he's known Merlin, he really hasn't learned that much about him, because Merlin is a lot less open than one would think. He's very sheltered and that bothers Arthur a lot because he doesn't know Merlin, not really.

He follows Merlin, who brings him to the guest room and helps him get settled then tells him that dinner's in twenty minutes.

Arthur spends his twenty minutes on his mobile, blogging of course, before a knock on his door makes him look up to see Merlin peeking his head in and telling Arthur that dinner is ready.

They go down the stairs together to see the table's been set and Arthur feels a bit bad beside if he'd known it was going to be a big ordeal, he'd for sure have helped. So he makes another mental note to help with the dishes to make up for it.

Merlin's mother, Hunith, is very sweet and Arthur sees in her everything he wished he'd had in his own mother before she'd died, and Merlin's grandfather Gaius is a bit old but seems very close to Merlin and Hunith and it's a family dynamic Arthur's never had before.

They talk cheerfully through the dinner, Arthur slowly realizing just how much he hates not having a put-together family and as time passes, it gets so bad that Arthur has to excuse himself in fear that he's going to break down crying and ruin Merlin's family's dinner.

He slips away as quickly and politely as he can, then rushes to the door and pulls on his boots. Maybe he just needs some fresh air or something.

He's walking down a scenic road and he realizes too late that he's been out for twenty minutes and he has absolutely no idea where he is. But he's also not emotionally prepared enough to face Merlin's loving family so he keeps on walking.

He's just got too many feelings going on right now, sadness mostly but there's also love. At least, he thinks it's love. He really doesn't know what love feels like.

He really needs to sort whatever this is out. Arthur has never been an emotional person, that was Morgana. He was always the one who kept calm in hard situations, he was the person who helped people get through hard times, and now here he was, needing someone to help him out for once, and nobody was there got him.

He feels his mobile vibrate in his pocket when he reaches a small, empty park, and sees a message from Merlin, but he can't bring himself to answer it so he switches to Tumblr and finds himself in m-agic4l's ask box.

_mrcamelot: how did you know you were in love???_

He stands there for a good five minutes just refreshing his ask box waiting for a reply before he finally gets one.

_m-agic4l: erm... I dunno. I think it's different for everyone, you know? It just kind of hits you that there's nowhere you'd rather be than by their side and there's nothing that you wouldn't do for them. Why are you asking? Is Arthur in looove? ;)xx_

Arthur squirms a bit as he's hit by the realization that yes, he is in love. He's in love with Merlin and everything Emrys said in that ask is what Arthur feels towards his café boy. Then he's freaking out, there's no way he's in love! He can't be in love! No, he's not in love, maybe he's just a bit more smitten than usual and that's why he's feeling funny.

But, really, who's he kidding? Of course he's in love. He's completely besotted with the stupid black-haired, scarf-wearing, big-eared café boy and try as he might, there's nothing at all that he can do about it.

_mrcamelot: yeah I am i think. I don't want to he but I am. Is that bad? i don't want to be in love but I am and I think that's bad oh my god emrys what do I do???? I think I should tell him but what if he doesn't love me back?? I can't lose him I just can't_

Arthur sighs, turning off his phone and digging his hands into his pockets as he turns around, about to start finding his way back to Merlin's house when he crashes into someone.

He looks up at the person and his eyes are met by a blue and a gold and all he can think to say is "hi."

"Hey," Merlin replies with his eyes narrowed and Arthur takes a step back. "You ran away."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry," Arthur apologizes while he runs a hand through his hair.

Merlin's silent for a moment, and Arthur's eyes go down to his feet. "Are you alright?" Merlin asks, and when Arthur looks back up at him there's tears forming along the bottom of his eyes.

"Fine," he tries to say, but it only comes out as a squeak and the first tear falls out of his eye and starts a fucking waterfall.

Merlin pulls Arthur into his arms and Arthur hates himself for letting himself go then, crying into Merlin's shoulder like a fucking child.

"What's wrong?" Merlin asks when Arthur calms down a bit, and Arthur keeps his arms wrapped around the taller boy's waits when he answers.

"You've got this perfect life with a perfect family who loves you so much, and my dad can't be bothered to call me on my bloody birthday or wish me a merry Christmas, and my mother's dead and my sister only talks to me once every two months, my own father is disappointed with me for not doing something bigger with my life, and to top it all off I'm in love with you and I'm fucking terrified of it," Arthur blurts and he feels Merlin freeze before he pulls away and wipes his eyes with his sleeve. Merlin's staring at him as if he can't tell if Arthur's telling the truth.

"Oh, Arthur," Merlin sighs, shaking his head. "I'm so sorry. I have to tell you something."

"You're straight, right?" Arthur asks with a desperate laugh. "Of course you are. Figures."

"No, not that. I love you, too, you bloody idiot, but it's not that."

Arthur's got butterflies in his stomach when Merlin says he loves him, but it's shortcoming because Merlin's about to tell him something apparently really bad.

"The first day we met, I recognized you. I'd known you for a while before that, but not in real life. I was so shocked to finally be talking to you because-"

"Because you're Emrys," Arthur finishes for him, the pieces finally clicking in his mind as he closes his eyes and exhales slowly while mentally cursing at himself for not realizing sooner. Of course Merlin is Emrys, it was so obvious! How could Arthur have missed it?!

Merlin swallows and nods in response to Arthur's statement. "Yeah. I am."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Arthur demands, and it's probably the fact that's he's ridiculously high-strung but he's really, really mad at Merlin. "Please tell me you just figured it out, like, today!"

Merlin shakes his head and Arthur sighs. "No, I'd known since before we even met. We live in the same dorm, it's not hard to recognize someone I'd followed for so long. I'm so sorry, Arthur-" Merlin reaches his hand toward Arthur's shoulder but he bats it away and crosses his arms.

"Why did you call yourself Emrys? Why are you pretending to he somebody else?"

"I'm not pretending to he someone else! I'm Welsh, and Emrys means Ambrosius. It's not that far of a stretch, really," Merlin tells him.

"You knew this whole time?!" Arthur demands. "So, that night you were crying in the bathroom, was that because if what I said?" He asks, and he should feel guilty when Merlin nods slowly but he's so mad he doesn't feel any emotion other than rage. "My God, I started a fucking war against you! Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"

"I didn't want you to hate me!" Merlin yells, and Arthur glares at him.

"You did a great job of that, then," he snarls, turning on his heels and storming off in the direction he came, leaving Merlin standing alone in the middle of the snow-filled park.

________________________________________

It isn't five minutes after he left that Arthur gets a text from Merlin with directions to his home, and while Arthur won't even admit to to himself, he's thankful that Merlin gave him directions because he's freezing and he'd probably die of hypothermia if he hadn't.

When he gets back to Merlin's house, he doesn't even look at Hunith and Gaius, he just silently goes up to the guest room and closes the door behind him.

He lays down on his temporary bed and he's alone with his thoughts, because he can't even bring himself to think about Tumblr since Merlin's gone and destroyed that for him. But then he hears the door handle move and curses at himself for not locking the door, and the only thing he can think to do is to fake sleep and hope whoever it is will just go away.

But the door opens, and Arthur listens as the person steps inside and closes the door behind them.

"Arthur," the person whispers and Arthur curses in his mind because the person is Merlin and he's the last person Arthur wants to see.

"Arthur, I know you're awake," Merlin sighs, and Arthur does, too, as he pus himself up into a sitting position while Merlin sits on the end of the bed. His cheeks feel wet and he can't even remember if he was crying or not.

He raises his eyes at Merlin, refusing to say a word to him because he's enraged and as soon as he opens his mouth, Merlin will probably end up crying with him.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I never meant for it to go this far, I wanted to tell you but I didn't want to lose you and you have to understand that I did it for your sake," Merlin splutters, and Arthur really isn't sure what to make of it so he just stares blankly at Merlin, hoping he'll take a hint and leave.

But, apparently Merlin is a bigger idiot than Arthur thought, because he just sits there staring back at Arthur until he finally exclaims, "well, say something!"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Arthur whispers, and Merlin looks down at his lap.

"I thought if you found out, you wouldn't like me anymore. You did start a war because of what you said, I didn't want that to ruin our relationship," Merlin explains, and now that Arthur isn't in a fit of blind rage he can actually see where Merlin's coming from.

"So this whole time you've been following me?" Arthur asks, and a small smile tugs at the corners of Merlin's mouth.

"Yeah, your posts about me are really cute, by the way. I remember the day we first met, I'd gotten off work and was on my dash when I saw this post, from someone named mrcamelot who happened to be that cute third year who lived in my dorm building, and he said something about falling in love in café's and you know, I couldn't help this stupid hope that you were talking about me. It made me happy, but it came back to bite me in the ass not an hour later when Daegal was in a fight with druidlegacy."

"Mordred," Arthur nods, and Merlin does, too.

"Yeah. And then mrcamelot joined in, and Daegal's my friend, so I had to stick up for him, you know? I couldn't let him deal with some stuck-up comedy blog by himself," Merlin smiles when he sees Arthur's reaction to being called a stuck-up comedy blog, and he opens his mouth to argue but Merlin continues, "and I was trying to be nice but you were making it pretty hard, then you called my photography shit and I don't even know, Will asked me what was wrong and I went to the bathroom and that's when I bumped into you and I was certain that you were going to punch me in the face or something. Then I remembered you didn't know who I am on Tumblr, and I thought, if I can just keep it like that then maybe I might actually have a chance."

"With me? You thought you didn't have a chance with me?" Arthur breathes, and Merlin looks confused for a moment and Arthur's angry face is gone as he bursts out laughing. "God, Merlin, I've been spending the last four months beating myself up because I thought I didn't have a chance with you!"

"What?" Merlin gapes, and Arthur shakes his head fondly.

"Well, you're like, this perfect guy and you make killer hot chocolate and you're rather adorable, and I just kept telling myself that you were too good to be true, that there was some catch and the next day you were going to tell me something that makes me ineligible or something like that."

Merlin stares at him for a moment, then blinks a few times disbelievingly.

"I'm sorry," Merlin breathes as he shakes his head.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Arthur laughs. "Because if you're sorry for that, then I'll have to feel sorry for this."

And then he's got the front of Merlin's shirt in his hand and he's pulling him toward himself and their lips are pressed against each other, and Arthur doesn't have time to worry about what he's doing because his hand is on Merlin's back and Merlin's is on he back of his neck, and when they finally pull apart Arthur squeezes his eyes shut and buries his face in Merlin's shoulder.

"Arthur," Merlin whispers and Arthur pushes his face further into the black T-shirt.

"Arthur," Merlin repeats and Arthur refuses to open his eyes in fear of what he's going to find when he does. If Merlin's going to hate him for doing what he's done or if he himself is crying because it seemed pretty likely that as soon as he opens his eyes, tears are going to spill out of his eyes and when Merlin says his name a third time, that's exactly what happens.

"What's wrong?" Merlin asks, using his thumb to wipe away the tear on Arthur cheek as he sniffs.

"I don't know. I'm just... Confused," Arthur admits, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

"Do you hate me?" Merlin whispers.

"Do I- God, Merlin, no, I don't hate you. I love you, I love you and I'm confused because I've never, like, been in love with anyone ever. I don't hate you, I could never hate you, that was completely irrational and J'm so sorry-"

"Arthur," Merlin cuts him off and Arthur realizes he was rambling so he slams his jaws closed and stares at Merlin.

"This whole time, you knew. All those posts I made, you weren't supposed to see them, you twat. This is so unfair," Arthur pouts, and Merlin laughs.

Arthur, try as he might, can't hold down a smile, and a grin spreads across his lips and it ends up hurting his cheeks a bit.

"I love you," Merlin says, and Arthur reaches his finger up to poke Merlin's cheek.

"I love you too, you twat."

"So, what's this, then? What are we?" Merlin asks, and Arthur shrugs.

"Whatever you want it to be."

"What do you say we make Tumblr have a meltdown and inform them of this?" Merlin suggests with a smirk, and Arthur grins again.

"I say we do it."

So Merlin opens his Tumblr app on his mobile and Arthur watches over his shoulder as he types out the post.

_m-agic4l: Guess what, guys? Arthur joined me for Christmas here in Ealdor, but there's a few things I haven told all of you! First, my name isn't Emrys, my name is Merlin! Emrys is just a stretch of my name, sort of. Second, I'm only from Ealdor, I don't live here. I live in London where I go to university with none other than mrcamelot! And over the last few months we've been talking, and today we decided to tell you guys that we are, in fact, together!!! :D xx_

Arthur's post, on the other hand, is a lot more to the point.

_mrcamelot: so um arthrys may or may not be real lol_

And all the Arthrys blogs, who the majority have changed from Arthrys to "Merthur," all explode and freak out and Merlin and Arthur are laughing so hard they both fall over.

And Arthur thinks to himself that the day really has been pretty good. 

________________________________________

 Arthur Pendragon has never been one to believe in happy endings. Just like he never really believed in love.

There was no such thing as happily ever after for Arthur, but he figures that what he has with Merlin is pretty damn close.


End file.
